Ministry of Science & Technology
Resolution to save villagers from COVID-19 inspires Nashik man to develop innovative tractor-mounted sanitization sprayer
Mumbai, May 26, 2020
For months, Rajendra Jadhav had been following the news of how Corona Virus was creating upheavals by devastating the health infrastructure and paralysing normal life. The sexagenarian villager from Satana in Nashik district had the vision to realise that this virus has the potential to create havoc if it happens to enter his village.
The information about how COVID-19 infection spreads and continuous awareness messages about the need for sanitization that were pouring in from radio, TV and WhatsApp messages. It made him realize the need for a mass sanitization drive in his village and tehsil.
The self-taught engineer who has been putting his technical knowledge to use in making agricultural tools and machineries to suit the needs of the local farming community, decided to develop a mass sanitizing machine. Accordingly, Jadhav started his research in his village workshop to develop a machine that can be used for mass cleaning of roads and public spaces.
Within 25 days, he came up with an innovative sprayer mounted on a tractor which is capable of sanitizing or washing large areas like roads, societies, doors, compounds, walls, etc.
The sprayer consists of two radial fans of aluminium, moving opposite to each other. In terms of mechanism, each fan sucks air from two opposite directions, which is released through nozzles at high pressure with minute droplets sizes. As the panel rotates 180 degrees, it can cover from the ground up to 15 feet tall walls. Any 15 HP tractor can be used to operate this sprayer.
Jadhav's machine has a capacity to store 600 litres of disinfectant mixed water in the tanker. As a result, compounds, doors can easily be sanitized with this sprayer.
An added advantage of using this sprayer for disinfecting works is that it hardly requires any human intervention and thus prevents human contact. A single person can drive the tractor and operate the sprayer.
‘Yashwant’ santization sprayer has been identified as a potential S&T based innovative solution in Challenge COVID-19 Competition  organised by the National Innovation Foundation
The cost incurred for developing this machine is around 1.75 lakh rupees, stated Jadhav. This sprayer is being used by Satana Nagar Nigam to cleanse and disinfect about 30 sq. km area in Satana.
Upon seeing the utility of this tractor mounted sprayer machine, a friend from Dhule district requested Jadhav to make one for sanitizing his village. The second machine manufactured by Jadhav has been deployed for sanitization in Dhule district.
‘Yashwant’ Sanitization sprayer has been deputed to disinfect areas under Satana Municipality
Rajendra Jadhav has named his innovative sprayer ‘Yashwant’. This is the brand name he uses for all the agricultural tools he makes.
While Rajendra Jadhav has applied for a patent for his unique sprayer, he has also sent across his innovative design to National Innovation Foundation . The Yashwant sprayer has been identified as a potential S&T based innovative solution in India's fight against COVID-19.
Rajendra Jadhav with the tractor mounted sanitization sprayer he has developed to disinfect large areas in the wake of COVID-19. The sexagenarian is engaged in further improving the sprayer machine.
About National Innovation Foundation
NIF is India's national initiative to strengthen the grassroots technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge. It was set up in the year 2000 in Ahmedabad to provide institutional support for scouting, sustaining and scaling up the grassroots innovations across the country.